Wednesday, October 01, 2003

Quick note on the concept of attention as "fuel"  for multitasking...  Doesn't feel like the right metaphor.  Quick brainstorm: How bout, juggling - works as long as their are no distractions or surprises.  Requires some training... Maybe - Driving - the wheel, the road, the pedals, the kids, the radio, the phone, now the MP3 player, the tape connector, the cup of coffee (sometimes starbucks, sometimes Gevalia), or Macdonald's fries, diet coke and Big Mac (haven't mastered driving and eating the salad yet - maybe a roll-up...).  Great when you're in the flow, but if one of the kids is going to throw up - then you might get in an accident trying to protect your $300 mp3 player!... ================ [CIO Magazine] Why More Is Less. "The inutility of multitasking as a productivity tool makes perfect sense when understood in terms of attention and available resources. "Current cognitive models suggest that people have a limited amount of attention available at any moment," says Seth Greenberg, a professor of psychology at Union College. "Attention could be thought of as a fuel that can be dispersed. Thus, tasks can be performed simultaneously with efficiency as long as the required attention for both tasks does not exceed the limit." In other words, a person can multitask effectively as long as any given task doesn't require too much attention and thereby exhaust his resources." [Web Voice] 6:54:59 PM

I read the blurb below and was struck by the following idea.  Teens tend to be insecure in their relationships and so have an innate need to stay in contact with each other to get continuous feedback and make continuous commentary. My wife was recently working with a company that used IM constantly.  Once she was away with the standard message - "I'll be back in a bit"  And she got an email asking where she goes when her IM away message is turned on.  These guys were unbelievably untrusting.  She was doing personal stuff - like making dinner, or running errands...  They feared that she was selling them out behind thier backs! I suggest that this always available state of being is an adolescent one of insecurity.  Granted their can be moments of great value in quickly getting answers - perhaps while on the phone with a customer, but beyond that it descends into arranging lunch, and gossip. Challenge me anyone!?!? ======================= "IMing Means Never Having to Say You're Not There". "According to a recent America Online (AOL) Teen-Wired survey, 70 percent of teens use the Internet for instant messaging, real-time message exchange, or chat. The number jumps to 83 percent for older teens, ages eighteen to nineteen - 56 percent of them prefer the Internet to the telephone. According to Sheila Tran, a spokesperson for AOL, 'Analysts predict that by 2005, instant messaging will surpass e-mail as the primary way of communicating online.' Teens have led the way. Tran notes that 'from the start, teens had more conversations going at once, used their Buddy Lists more, and were creating a whole new language.' AOL's IM service 'virtually lights up after school. Teens love IM because it allows them to talk to all their friends at once; they even call their friends to say 'go online....' My high school students, my college son and daughter, and their friends eagerly shared with me the significance of IMing in their lives. Despite privacy and time management issues, it is a critical lifeline, the form of communication they can't live without.... Unlike high school students, my daughter's college friends leave their computers logged on at all times.... [Deborah] Tannen notes that unlike other formats, IMs 'maintain an open state of communication, assuming you are always there. If you're not, you'll have an away message posted. Kids are in a state of communication even when they are not talking.' " [VOYA, October 2003, p.291] Does your library understand the growing significance of instant messaging and real-time chat? Are you prepared to provide services to these kids? [The Shifted Librarian] 6:37:06 PM

This little paragraph caught my attention - I think Winer is right - good links that you post are acts of selflessness.  They send people off to learn something or explore something new.  And if they liked that then you gain their trust (at least a tiny bit at a time). Shifts stickiness from being a destination site to being a launching pad or reference sight... Winer on Links and Trust. Dave, at the BloggerCon blog, says the Web is about trust. He says: Jakob Nielsen drew a dichotomy that explains it, the dark side of the Web that sucks in traffic and doesn't let go, and the light side that distributes flow, trusting that if I send you somewhere good you'll come back to me for more. Yup. Links are the stuff of the Web and every link is a little - little - act of selflessness: "Here's someplace else you might find interesting, so go away from my site. Go! Scoot!" Businesses obsessed with "sticky eyeballs" are the last... [Joho the Blog] 6:12:49 PM

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